Raleigh Case Study

I've had a case study performed on me..... nothing to worry about though, it was all performed by my lovely sidekick (erm, my PR mentor, the one who kept me on the straight and narrow in Borneo) Kate. My case study is on the Raleigh International website.  Note it may not be exactly word for word what I said....   (it probably reads better than what I said though)

One of the ongoing Raleigh goodbyes

Well, you just can't escape Raleigh folk, but I guess now everyone can be called friends rather than referring to them as 'Raleigh folk' - the Raleigh bubble has burst just now, but we're all spreading ourselves across Asia for the moment. Here's me just after having my few welcoming drinks in KL with Mia, and waving her and Kevin off on the bus to Singapore, with some ex-participants - Mia's blog post.

Last night in KK

Well it feels like I've been writing this all the time - 'last night in KK', 'moving on soon','my own phase 2' and all that crap. But as long as I can get my bombsite of a hostel room in a better state tomorrow and post a couple of boxes home, I should be on the ferry to Labuan tomorrow lunchtime, and Brunei a day or so later. After a few failed emails, a quick handphone call (thats what they call mobiles here) to Brunei and I do believe I may have a room booked in one of the very rare cheap accommodation places in Brunei.

I finished my Rescue Diver course today and it was weird saying bye to the crowd at Borneo Divers. They've been so good to everyone on the expedition and getting us all through so many courses, and the head honcho is so interested in the expedition work (ok, I've bigged him up as he liked my end of expedition slideshow ;->).

Anyway, it's on a sad note to leave Kota Kinabalu. A few days ago I was flying here from Tawau (where you fly to Mabul / Sipadan) and I didn't want to come back here, but after four months it starts to mean a bit more I guess. Sabah rocks as a destination....KK is like any big city (although if I came here for a weekend I'd think it was sh!t) but around it there is so much to do, and you can anything here from fancy hotels to the lively filipino market and their amazing peanut pancake thingies you get there.

Last night I was so pleased I had only spent two pounds all day and thought I had got into 'travellers mode'...then I bumped into someone and blitzed 25 quid on beers at the fancy bars.

I ended my time here well though - I bumped into a tour guide from another country who just landed and went out for beers and food with him talking about travels, Sabah, the differences and how to relate to people back home (in a non-wanky way), gave him a whistle stop tour of KK so he can pretend he knows the place in a few weeks, and then he threw the whole night on his expenses. If Nod, Rich, Phil, Jane or Jade reads this I made sure I ended it the way I started it.... at BB Cafe like my first night here...

Diving pictures from Sipadan

Here's a couple of my diving pics from Sipadan taken at White Tip Avenue, and Barracuda Point (before the camera flooded!!). There's a shot of one of many turtles and a couple of a large 3 foot cuttlefish, and one of a school of barracudas starting to spiral down in a tornado formation.

I spent today at Mamutik Island again getting bitten by the mossies and the sand flies...those of you from Raleigh will understand that well. I expected to do more skills for my Rescue Diver but I ended up just doing the exam, and accompanying people on two dives around the island. I saw another turtle today. I then flew through my exam and will finish off the practical skills tomorrow.

I'm kinda sad to be leaving KK now but it has to be done, although that depends on how well I get on in packaging up my boxes to send home - a task that seems a lot bigger than it actually is.

Second phase...starts Monday!

Well that's the loose plan. The second phase of my non-Raleigh adventure starts Monday as I plan to leave my 'home' that is Kota Kinabalu to take the ferry to Labuan (still Malaysia) off the coast of Brunei, spend a night or two there, then a couple of days in Brunei before flying up to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. This will give me a few nights there before meeting my mate. Of course, the only thing I've booked is my flight from, Brunei - not the ferries or anything...hey one step at a time!!

Unfortunatly it doesn't look like the wreck dives will happen in Labuan as hoped - probably a good thing for the 'budget' but not so good for the experiences. There's a distinct lack of cheap accommodation in both those places so I'm fighting the urge to go upmarket in one of them....guess I need to buy a new camera sometime!

Rescue Diver and planning next move

Well still no new pictures as I don't have my laptop online. I've been back in KK saying yet more goodbyes, often to the same people. I'm now the only Raleigh staff in the hostel so it's starting to change a bit, with several flying to KL and Cambodia tomorrow.

I spent today and yesterday doing my PADI Rescue Diver course, and will finish it off tomorrow or the next day. I'm trying to make some plans for next week but failing miserably. I thought I'd head to Brunei just to see what it's like, and get the ferry from KK via Labuan to see some of these amazing wrecks that all the tourism promotions go on, and on, and on about.....but it seems it's quite difficult to sort out a trip - a google search doesn't give me any details, the tourism board doesn't give me any dive schools, and the agent in KK says hardly anyone goes there now, despite teh tourism board still pumping out information about it. I then tried to find out cheap accommodation there and ran into another stumbling block.

Hey ho I may just take the chance, but it looks like the diving is out. It also looks like the dive operators have started to wrap up in the Perhentians already which is a bit of a pain as I am heading there on 3rd October....

It's strange to know I'll be leaving KK next week. When I came back here from Sipadan I didn't want to make the trip as I wanted to move on elsewhere, however now I'm here it's great having a place I know my way around, and I look at all the Orang-putees (dodgy spelling, but basically white folk) and wander what they're doing in 'my town'.

I'll be in KL by the end of next week, meanwhile I 'm off to try and sort out some luggage I have to send home.....! Maybe a night out with a staffer who is back in town tonight, but it depends if I hear from him or not - maybe tomorrow instead....

Oh yeh, and I saw a massive stonefish today (just after one had to be moved from the beach area), and a blue spotted stingray today...luckily I didn't tease it like some other famous folk recently...

Hmm...my camera's not switching on in this dive....and more sharks

It's the last day's diving today, so three to finish it off. This morning we were back to Sipadan at 0745. Yesterday the diving didn't look promising as we had to transfer in pretty rough seas, but it turned out ok. Last night there was a tropical storm (evidence by the trashed house in the stilted village we saw later), so it looked even worse today. I had a mad moment during the night thinking I had left my rash vest and shorts outside...and they had disappeared. Just as I was about to head out on a search in the middle of the storm, around 3am, I remembered I had hung them up in the bathroom. Quite an amazing acheivement really as I was so knackered after heading back last night, and had consumed a tiger and several 'specially imported' (ahem) shots of Filipino Tanduay Rum obtained from the local village next to the resort.

So the first dive went a bit like this.... hmmm...my camera's not switching on - weird. I had put new batteries in this morning and had resealed the o-ring on the waterproof housing. I gave it several attempts then gave up. It was then I started to see the mist forming on the inside, closely followed by a rapidly increasing bubble of water filling up the inside of the casing......not much I could do at this point apart from sack off the dive in the hope I rescued it. We had got dropped off at White Tip Point though so I knew there should be more sharks down below (albeit not that huge)......so I did the only thing that was right.....continue the dive, watching the water seeping in, and rapidly trashing my camera. I quickly calculated that Raleigh staff seem to have around a 20% hit rate on trashing cameras on this trip....... never mind, it'll give me an excuse to buy these Sony's I've been eyeing up, despite their trashed count sitting at two.

It was a weird feeling coming in and washing down my camera in fresh water. I'm currently holding out the memory card dries out successfully as I was too lazy and relaxed to download the pictures of turtles and sharks last night...arrrggg.

Anyway, the dive continued and we saw more huge turtle elegantly cruising by and a few more white tipped sharks. The second dive at Coral Reef Garden had quite a current which was hard work after a while, but loads of coral to be seen.

Anyway, my last or second last dive beckons...I must dash...

Swimming with the sharks and barracuda on Sipadan

It was a fantastic day's diving today, managing to squeeze in four dives. Two dives were on Mabul island, including a night dive, and we did two dives at Sipadan. There was an amazing amount to see including umpteen turtles, cuttle fish, thousands of other fish I had no idea what they were, and also several white tipped sharks. At one of the dive sights (imaginatively called Barracuda Point) we amanged to witness an amazing formation of thousands of barracuda creating a tornado formation about us before swimming away. It was quite a site with a bunch of divers having around so they would approach us, rather than scaring them off, but it was fantastic to see them in formation. On my last dive, my fins were also bitten by a trigger fish when surfacing which was a bit unsettling at first, then quite amusing.

The night dive was pretty special as well with us seeing several large turtles elegantly coasting along, and again some of them were massive. It's something pretty special to be swimming alongside them, lit up by torchlight. We also saw a number of crabs that looked as though the coral was growing on them (although I'm sure it wasn't), a miniature octopus, and loads more I can't remember. Mabul is famous for it's macro life, so lots of tiny things were pointed to us by the divemaster.

Borneo Divers have it pretty sorted here - a relaxed dive resort with pool (and bar) and a nice little beach bar open later on. The food is great as well which is just what you need. It's taken a bit of time for the folk I'm with to adjust to other people carrying our bags for us, but it's bloody brilliant at the same time.

Turtles on Mabul Island

Most of the staff attended the Malaysian Merdeka Day celebratons last night at Likas Stadium in KK. I think they rotate it around all the different regions in Malaysia and this year was Sabah's turn. Our VIP tickets had us sitting almost within spitting distance of the King. It was a pretty full on event with a shedload of dancing, singing and music but we were all too knackered to take full advantage of it and were struggling to keep our eyes open. If it wasn't for the uncomfy stadium chairs....

We were up at 5.30am today to get to the airport and fly to Tawau, then got a boat transfer to Mabul Island. You know those desert islands that people talk about? They really do exist - not Mabul, but on the way we passed a pristine island that consisted of only sand and four or five palm trees.

Soon after arriving we had two boat dives. They were both great dives, but utterly ruined by foggy goggles, so I spent most of my time clearing them - not what you want! On the second dive we saw several turtles, very close to the island. Without exaggerating one of them was about the same length as me - the divemaster reckoned it could weigh up to 100kg.

We did hear some stories about the permit limitations for access to Sipadan diving though, and some folk were turned back today, so fingers crossed for tomorrow as my name's on the list.

Oh yeh....I'm sitting here on my laptop, using wireless internet, sitting on the outside decking of the resort, and away to help myself to the buffet. Hard living ;-> But it is costing me a month in Thailand for a few days probably!

More updates tomorrow no doubt. I'll have my camera out tomorrow, I just hope I see through the goggles to work the bloody thing.

Last night in field base

The last couple of days have been very hectic as we are all preparing to leave field base at ridiculous o'clock to fly to Tawau, then get the boat to Sipadan for three days of diving. I never even found time to sort out my luggage so when I come back to KK next week for the dive course, I'll be doing that in the evenings!

One of the in-country staff, Mia, left to travel today so it was a last night out with her yesterday (there's some of my pics and a mention in her blog). All the staff that are left in KK made a return visit to Cafe Tutu at the Shangri La for a slap up buffet on seafood night. We then move to town to a salsa club, then Bed nightclub in KK watching a Malaysian trio of Spice Girl wannabees inbetween the music. We tried to stay on after they had put the chairs up and were brushing the floor but it didn't work....

This morning some of us were up at 545 to help with a fundraiser for a local stroke group, but I didn't make it until later on. In a few moments I'm off for the final 'do' which is for independence day celebrations at Likas Stadium in town, with VIP invites from the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Although everyone is extremely tired, it could be in interesting event with fireworks etc...unfortunately for the last few hours we've been subjected to some of the worst rainstorms there's been since our arrival......

I think everyone is ready for the end of the trip now and it'll be superb to get a few days on the island outside the Raleigh 'bubble'.

It's been a complete blast, and if any of you on the expedition read this, thanks for all the fantastic times and memories, and hopefully we'll be able to keep in touch afterwards.

Expedition Wash-up

It's that time already and it seems to be flying by. We had our staff party at Gayana Island Resort last night. It was a pretty well behaved affair on the whole, but was a good laugh with late night swims etc in a lovely pool that was fenced off from the sea, and staying in a nice stilted set of cabins. When we arrived we were greet with around 20 long tailed makak monkeys playing around the water, including one with two babies being carried around. Underneath us was a monitor lizard swimming in the sea.

Staff have started to leave now with our last big night out tomorrow before we head off to Sipadan which I'm really looking forward to. I've completed my post expedition report and have a long list of stuff to wrap up before heading home. I've booked flights back to KK from there to do my dive course before heading up to KL to start the second leg of the travels, or over to Brunei for a night or so. I could do with getting out of KK for a change, but the price I got for diving was irresistable.

End of expedition!

It's pretty much that time already!

The last few days were spent at the final expedition wash up, and a closing ceremony with the Minister if Youth and Sport, and his Permanent Secretary (and others) in attendance. My slideshow of the three months went down a storm, and it had a (if I may say so) cracking soundtrack from Greenday to Hieroglyphics.

We all went to a small basic resort by the beach and had a good party, with a cracking sunset, then were in the sea in the dark watching a distant thunderstorm, stuffed full of BBQ food and non alcoholic cocktails.

All the participants went home today, or we dumped them in KK to go on their merry ways. Quite a sad day, but the end of a good time, and there's definitely folk out of the group I'll miss (but hey, not a lot of you ;-> ). A few tears were shed at the airport (not mine, thank god!), a few bits of gear were left behind.

We then returned to fieldbase, then a slab of beer was cracked open and we went out for a meal.

I'm sure there are loads more I could write about the last few days but I need my bed. It's the staff party tomorrow and I'm determined to make it snorkelling before the madness kicks in. If you are checking this out after having got back to the UK, I hope you settle back in ok, and don't get too down. Just think of all the good times, and the things you've done that none of your mates will ever do.

I've confirmed my Emergency First Response and Rescue Diver courses before I leave Sabah, I only need to book return flights from the Sipadan trip. I think I'm binning the idea of heading up to Sandakan for the orangutans and turtle island due to the cost, but hey ho, plenty more adventures to come...

Trekking to the office

This morning I watched the sunrise at the top of Mount Kinabalu again. This second time seemed a lot harder than the first - probably because I hadn't warmed up trekking the Crocker Range for a week like I did the last time. I had sore knees, and my head was spinning a bit. It was quite an 'interesting' trip with two of the leaders turning back as one was ill, then we had to arrange someone to be stretchered down 6km from 11000 feet along a really rocky and 'steppy' path, with a suspected ankle injury. All in all it was a hard, but enjoyable end to the expedition. Almost everyone made it to the summit and I was almost in tears looking down to the mountain's shadow cast by the rising sun (I missed this the last time as I had my camera pointed towards the sun and never looked over the back). I summitted a bit later than the last time as I waited at the checkpoint for the tail end of the group, but this just meant I saw the sun rise from a different angle.

After a very sleepy trip back to KK in the land rover I was straight back into the office and doing final prep for the end of expedition. I can't beleive that 3 months have passed, and tomorrow all the project teams arrive back in KK for the final expedition wash up and the end of expedition parties.

On Sunday I'll be showing my slideshow at the closing ceremony in front of all the participants and some guests from the Ministry of Youth and Sport, and everyone will get a copy of the expedition CD. I'm looking forward to seeing the reactions when it's shown on the big screen with the 'funky?' soundtrack I've put onto it. It's taken me far too long to put it together but also very enjoyable realising everything that's happened across the project sites. As ever I've got last minute additions from two projects to put in.

Anyway, gotta go and pack for the next few days.....

More pictures published!

Popped out last night and got my hands on a copy of the new Sabah Tourism's Sabah Magazine last night. On the back page was a Raleigh article written by our resident PR Officer, and 6 of my pictures were accompanying the article on the back and contents pages! Unfortunately my name wasn't credited but it was great to see them in print.

This Sabah map on Sabah Tourism's website it pretty reasonable and by the end of this month I'll have travelled to most corners of it.

Well some stresses and strains are coming out as everyone is starting to get ready in the head for the end of expedition. Just as I was about to pack my bag for Mount Kinabalu, I returned to field base with the end of expedition magazine (looks good) and the CD's. The magazine is great and it's brilliant seeing even more of my images (and some others) in full colour print. Unfortunately I proudly popped the CD into the tray of the deputy expedition leader's PC, only to find out the wrong CD contents had been burned!! Arrrggg. Luckily it was through no fault of our own, but there was definitely some smoothing over as to not upset the supplier too much.

Oh well, got some more stuff to do, and as usual, a later than normal bedtime before Mt K, as I know I'll be up at 2am tomorrow night to summit in the dark to see the sunrise up there again.

My blogging will be quiet as we then roll into the end of expedition parties. Oh yeh, I also slid down some of that slippery slope I mentioned a few blogs ago, and walked out a dive shop today with a mask and snorkel...it's maybe only a matter of temptation before I buy the fins, but I'm fighting it hard as they'd be a pain in the arse to carry around the world! The hire ones are pretty abysmal though, and it looks like I'll be doing the rescue diver course before leaving Sabah.

Mount Kinabalu again...and staff party

Had a fantastic day off yesterday and did two dives as mentioned earlier. Sulu Reef by Sulu Island, and Mid Reef by Manukan Island. Although not spectacular dives in the grand scheme of things they were by far the best I've done here so far, and the second one had a small wreck of a trawler type boat. There were loads of fish around here and we saw a sea snake of some kind, a cuttle fish (or whatever it's called), large stonefish and quite a bit more that I don't know the names of.

Anyway, today and tomorrow is finishing off the slideshow and prepping some images for the final wash-up as I've been asked to go up Mount Kinabalu again as they are a mountain leader short. It's no big deal to do it again, but I do hate paths like the one at the start up until the overnight rest point. It will also mean I'm a bit more hurried as I'll come back from there and straight to the wash up, venturers party and staff party. Looking forward to the staff party as we've found out it's at the Gayana Resort - check it out - very nice water villa style accommodation. Better buy that snorkelling gear....

Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar tips needed

In a month's time or less I'll be wandering around SE Asia so please send on any tips from previous travels.....

Google Maps - Kota Kinabalu and dive sites

I've arranged a diving day on Monday just off the coast from KK. As I was looking into it I found this great site wannadive.net which integrates with google maps and shows KK and the surrounding Tunku Abdul Rahman park.

Manukan Reef was the area I was snorkelling around last week. The island shown above South Reef is Mamutik where the group stays for a week of their adventure phase. Raleigh obviously wasn't there when the photograph was taken as you can't see the waterproof tarp up when you zoom in! KK is pretty detailed as well but I can't work out how to mark field base yet.

It still makes me more excited when I read the wannadive sections on Sipadan.


I'd love to fit in some diving on Labuan as there are great wrecks there, but time is making it look unlikely.

A slippery slope - I visited a dive shop today.....

I 'popped' into KK today to get pictures printed for a wee exhibition, and to be used at promotional events in the future. It's a bit of a hassle not having command of your own transport here (and the travellers mentality is hitting me trying to justify the two pound taxi in and out), so I had a good few hours to kill waiting for them to be ready.

KK doesn't have many places to just go and chill in unless you are eating or drinking (at least I haven't found them), or having a massage (again, I couldn't justify the cheap cost of this!?!) so I ended up bumming around a few shops trying not to spend any money.

Unfortunately I stumbled across the shop at o2 Diver in KK and before I knew it I had rang the bell and was wandering around their well equipped store. I had to run away before buying a dive mask, snorkel and potentially fins...but I think I'll probably be back before the trip to Sipadan, for the first two anyway. I've also made semi serious enquiries about doing my Rescue Diver and Emergency First Response course before I leave Sabah, as I'm hoping to get it for a price that would be stupid to resist....

Durian

I finally had a taste of the infamous Durian fruit today. I've meant to many times before so the boss took one into the office, and we all had a taste. The smell wasn't as bad as I expected and the taste of it was......different. Quite a weird texture, but again, not nearly as bad as I had anticipated, and I never had that look of horror some of the other staff or participants had.
Apart from that a pretty uneventful day, probably because I hid in a room with my laptop and worked on the end of expedition slideshow.

Another article about Raleigh International in Panaitan appeared the New Straits Times yesterday.

Slideshow of my work as a Raleigh International expedition photographer

I've removed the previous slideshow and added some more images...still none of them show the jungle, the camps, the kampongs etc, but it's a start. This is a sample of some of the photographs I've taken over the last two months - mostly in the last few weeks.

Manukan Island snorkelling

I managed to take some time out today. I was all relaxed, finished my book during breakfast and was all ready to order a taxi to the ferry terminal. I then made the mistake of walking into the office and had 10 minutes of stress after walking into a discussion about a photo exhibition in 3 days time, that appeared from nowhere... after snapping at people for a while we came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it, then I went and called a cab.
I went to the ferry terminal to get the inter-island ferry to Sapi Island and arrived just in time for the last place on the boat. The expensive ferries leave from Sutera Harbour, but then you're paying what I refer to as the 'Sutera tax' - it's a lovely resort hotel, but it's cheaper to get the ferry from the town centre at Jesselton Point. This is the area I was trying to take photos of several weeks ago, and there's been a huge difference in the area, and going to look pretty smart by the end of the refurbishments. If you take a cab here though just ask for the ferry terminal.
I was a total tourist though and ended up at Manukan Island in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park... I was on the boat waiting for it to dock at the Sapi jetty, then it pulled away. I was on my way to Manukan. What I didn't realise, is the boat stops for long enough for people to walk off the front, but doesn't actually dock.
Anyway, Manukan was nice, and if you asked me yesterday, this is where I was originally plannig to go. For 51RM (seven pounds) I had my return ticket, park entry fees, and a mask and snorkel for the day.
I had a great hours snorkelling, a bit of reading, and before I was ready for it waws on the boat back to KK. The snorkelling wasn't the best in the world, but it was really relaxing and there was plenty to see, as shown by the pictures.
When I arrived on the island I took a 1.5km walk along a path to 'sunset point. It would have been absolute comedy to be walking behind me. Despite spending the best part of 3-4 weeks in jungle terrain, the dry leaves on and around the path amplified every sound you heard in the surrounding overgrowth. There were so many small lizards around, yet every time I heard something scuttle through the leaves, my heart rate shot and and I occassionaly jumped. The dryness of the leaves makes every noise sound like it's something huge moving around. I didn't feel quite so much of a woose when I saw that two of them were around 4 foot long monitor lizards crossing the path with feet of me. To give you an idea of what they look like, over the last two weeks we've had two reports of 'crocodile' sitings from project sites over the radio. The next day they ate some humble pie... 'erm, it was a monitor lizard'

I submitted a few pictures of Sabah to a request from an online picture agency, but considering there are hundreds of other submissions I won't be holding my breath too much.

Life as a Raleigh International expedition photographer

I was sending an email the other day, first thing in the morning, still tired from the night before, and ended up ranting. The funny thing is, it's probably the most realistic account of my life as the expedition photographer. I've edited it a bit as it originally formed part of an email, and more has happened over the last few days.....this is a summary of some of my last phase when I was hopping around projects. If I get the chance I'll edit it again to make it read better and make more sense!

Before you read it, don't let it put you off Raleigh, or wonder about your kids going on it - some projects have very few incidents, and when you read the stuff below, it probably reads worse than it actually is.


....when you're in a tiny kampong you finally realise you got there after
bouncing along the roughest roads you've seen for several hours, only covering 70km. You get dropped at one side of the river (where you soon find out all your supplies will be dumped) and have to wade across, then walk 1km to end up in a 15 house kampong (village) which is your home for the next 10 days until the loop (resupply) vehicle comes to move you on. The kampong has one car that keeps breaking down, and your only contact with the outside world is the
daily, crackly, hard to make out HF radio contact, and your only chats with
the locals are through an 18 year old Malaysian participant who can speak 80% of their lingo. The only washes you have are in the river you cross every day, (usually carrying the pipes for the gravity water feed system), and upstream you sometime swim or play frisbee. Home is the local community hall, overlooked by the JKKK's house (the head of the village).

Ten days later, you head from the kampong in the loop vehicle, moving around projects for the next few days, covering up to 600km
on a road trip - more than half of it off road, shaking up your inside as you bounce
along the road to the next destination for a night in another wee kampong where they are building a kindergarten, met by 25 kids running towards the land rover. On the way back out at early o'clock the next morning, you bounce along the road back out again, and spend a night in the jungle after trekking in to the BBC's old camp at Imbak Canyon, trying to beat the dark, having just rushed to pass logging trucks spewing out dust for 0.5km behind them, so you can make the river before the pending storm makes it too high to drive across. Once there you are pestered by the group for mail, have to pester them for PR quotes, and smile happily and pretend you are really up for the special quiz they have organised for their welcome guests - the only new faces they see in 3 weeks. As to not miss an opportunity, you then fight the temptation to crash out to do a night trek. 5am beckons before you're ready for it, and at 6am you're trekking back out to the land rover with someone who's had sad family news so you can send them back to base on a bus, but while trekking you're constantly wondering if the river is still low enough to drive back over... then bounce along to the next destination.
After a rare treat of a hotel for a few hours sleep at night in a stopover town (Lahad Datu), it's up early again to greet the party from the Ministry of Youth and Sport who have flown in to visit the project site at Danum Valley, which is 60km from any other human habitation. You have lunch with them, trek in with them, trek back with them, have dinner, take pics of them tree planting, attend a science talk with them, then feel obliged to stay up and sing karaoke with them, before grabbing 4hrs sleep and getting up to watch the sunrise with them, leaving at 0430, then dumping pics on your laptop (specially requested on the land rover) so they can be taken back to the PR person for press releases while you stay there to help build a suspension bridge. A few days later after lugging stones and concrete up steep banks, up a river, or across a river to build bridge foundations, you are settling down for a last relaxing night at the camp. Before you know it, you're acting as a runner between the radio and the PM acting as medic, as someone has got a fever and you are trying to contact field base on one radio, and have another person walking to the rangers camp to radio a boat to come up the river incase we move the person to the hospital. Within 10 minutes my last night is cancelled, and I'm packing my kit, stuffing dinner down my throat (as I don't know when I'll next eat), and heading down the river on the ranger's boat from the camp, guided by spotlight (and headtorches when they cut the engine as the river was low), then bussing it the next morning to Lahad Datu hospita, 2.5hrs away, with with someone who is about to have a temperature of 40.8c taken. Then you try and discharge them (much to the frustration of the staff as a doctor hasn't seen them yet, so they rapidly find the time for a quick consultation) so you can try and pick up a ticket for them at the airport so they can join my prebooked flight back to fieldbase, as they switch rapidly between a pale white, and deep red face. Meanwhile you try and convince the ticket agent, who is questioning whether they should fly, that they have been checked out at hospital and they are ok to fly, and "don't worry, I'll
have him back in hospital in KK within 2 hours"...

Arriving back in field base a day before changeover to catch up with pictures, and see what you've taken 4 weeks ago, you then have to juggle with requests to help
organise games to keep participants occupied the following afternoon at changeover, cope with 6 conversations going on at once in the office, and all the time, 24x7, the white noise of the radio coming across over the loudspeakers incase there is an incident (of which there are several - 3 people were hauled out of Danum for fevers while I was there), and jumping up every time someone sends a fax, as the beeping sounds identical to a radio call from a group.

I was straight into selecting about 40 pics from thousands to go in a magazine, other folk being taken off islands ill, trying to help book flights for 15 staff for a post expedition dive trip, while I should be looking out pics for an
exhibition and CDROM etc etc...

When I was in Danum my journal was almost up to date (except 2 weeks from initial jungle training) and I've written nothing in it since arriving back at field base (which staff on projects seem to think the easy life is).

By the time I get back to field base, any letters I received at changeover seem like they were months ago as so many things have happened, and in reality, it was 5 weeks between getting one letter and me being back in field base I think. I've got 6 postcards I was going to write, and I've had them for weeks, and never had a chance to write them. The only one I've written was to a mate, and that was in Chinese, written by someone on my behalf, to see if he could understand it.

The last week's I've been shitting in deep holes (or maybe not deep, depending how long we stopped for), getting leeched on the way back from them, but only finding out once I've returned to my sleeping liner in my hammock, bathing in rivers (or sometimes a trickle of water flowing down a craftily placed bit of bamboo), trying to remember to put on sandals all the time as we saw a small scorpion kicking around, or boots in the jungle for the same reason (or snakes), carrying a water pipe under the 'bat cave' logs etc etc. I got off lightly with the leeches - threw hundreds off, but only 4 'bleeders' - several have been leeched on their nuts!

I've been trying to keep my head down recently as a trek leader has been hauled off the island to hospital so I'll be doing anything to avoid being selected as a stand in (since I've done my mountain leader training) as that'll mean I'm trekking for a week or so rather than doing the photo stuff. I'm still rushing on with the photo stuff, but I may be back in the Crocker Range trekking again before I know it.


BUT...don't let this put you off, it's bloody great fun, and all an adventure!!
While I was browsing around I also found the blog of a previous expedition's PR Officer.

PADI Advanced Open Water

Yaaah, I managed to get two dives in today to complete my PADI Advanced Open Water I started in the Philippines last year. I found out a few things during the dive today, some good, some bad :

• I don't panic too much when it all goes a bit pear shaped
• Even in exotic locations, the visibility can still be piss poor
• My watch was only waterproof to 30m (although now I could take it to any depth)
  

I joined a Raleigh group that had done their Open Water, and moved on to their Advanced this week. We went to 30ish metres, sat on the seabed and wrote A-Z then Z-A on the slate, and it was all hunky-dory. I thought visibility would improve as we descended, but it was that bad you had to be inches away from someone's mask to see their eyes at times. We then sat around for 10 mins or so.....which seemed to last longer than that. I checked the time on my watch, and it was all ok. An instructor came round counting us off, then I wondered whether we should have followed him. Some more time passed so I looked around to see what I could bang my tank with to attract attention...the only thing being my plastic watch, but it did make a noise.
This went on for a while, the other two in my group wondering what the hell I was doing, but I knew it made sense. I heard the bells from the instructor was wasn't confident enough of the exact direction to move towards it. Eventually my air started to get low, so I signalled to my group we'd surface, with a stop on the way (using their depth gauge as mine was wonky). As I rose from the seabed I kept tapping away on the tank, the out of the blue (boom, boom) my instructor appeared. I signalled to her about my air, then took her second regulator as my intake, then slowly headed up with the compulsory stop.
So I felt ok, and afterwards asked the instructor if I did the right thing, and had indicated the correct stop depth to the group I was in, so I was quite pleased with that. It turns out they were doing a quick search for someone...unless I lost a bit in translation.
On the boat back I checked my watch which had a little bit of the South China Sea inside it. Not good. I rapidly calculated that it cost me the equivalent of a month's worth of the beach hut accommodation in Krabi I was looking at last night.

On the plus side, my navigation dive went better than I thought, despite not having too much on the seabed to use for my natural features navigation part.

Raleigh International Press Coverage

There's been loads of articles published, largely due to our ever efficient PRO Kate. This article in The Star is about the gravity water feed system in Kampong Linapasan I was on for 10 days at the start of the month. There's another article about the Opening Ceremony in The Star with more general coverage of Raleigh. I'm trying to work out if the picture online is mine or not, but it's probably just that the photographer was crouching next to me.

I've decided I'm slowly starting to show signs of being a 'traveller' although I'm nowhere near being a real one (yet?). The following are only the first signs :

• I cringe when the shop bill gets close to 30 RM (under a fiver)
• I am wearing a friendship band (rapidly pleated from camping twine!) on my wrist given by one participant at Danum Valley, and I have another one in my pocket, but I haven't got round to burning the ends of the cord yet.
• I leave the town centre of KK and go back to fieldbase as I'll only spend money on things I don't need.
• I've only got a couple of travel dates planned (although I do have flights)

Over the next few days I'll post a no-holds barred account of what it's like to be a Raleigh International Expedition Photographer (come Project Manager, come Admin person, come Logistics person, come Medic etc etc - you don't think you apply for one role and stick to that role do you? That's half the fun!). It'll sound manic (it is) but it's all great fun, and highly recommended.

Photography news

Was just killing time browsing around about photography when I stumbled upon this article about an IPTC image tags mishap by Lothian and Borders police during the G8 summit - a word of caution for learning photographers in there!!

I also discovered that Olympus are about to launch a 10MP consumer camera featuring an image stabalisation feature for 330 UKP in October! Bummer because I bought a Canon A540 before I headed on my travels and it's shit - usual story, in a rush, needed a half decent manual compact camera that I could get a waterproof casing for. The flash takes bloody ages to, well...flash in that time of need. To add insult to injury, the little box of metal is 100 UKP cheaper over here. Actually it's not too bad a camera, but that feature is very annoying. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. Or wishing I had just said 'bugger the manual features' and bought one of the dinky little IXUS's.

Post Expedition Plans

I was about to say nothing much to report again - I went for a two pound haircut this morning then continued sifting through pictures again. Being in the office is driving us all a bit mental. Raleigh fever has hit bad - I've got a habit of loosing everything that I've put in a safe place - which was usually my hands five minutes earlier. Today I topped it all, after looking for my toiletries bag (for 4 days) in my pile of stuff lying around my bed in 'Stigs Dump' (yes that's what we call one of the 'boys' rooms) I found it.... Hanging up in a safe place - in the bloody bathroom. This scenario can be played back on things like USB pen drives, sunglasses, wallets and anything else I leave in 'safe places'.

The main news today is several of us have booked a dive trip to Sipadan Island after the end of the expedition. Like being at the top of Mount Kinabalu, this was one of the moments that got me bouncing around the office with joy....that topped with the fact that I have started to make plans for October. I say plans, but it's only the initial destination - everything else will hopefully just fall into place at the time, after a few days on Perhentian Islands, just the way I like it. It's a bit like my trip to Sipadan - I've only booked a one way ticket to Tawau from KK just now as I can't decide whether, or how, to head up to the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary and Turtle Islands National Park, head back to KK, do a dive course, visit my sister in Manila, or head to Peninsular Malaysia...and the best thing? It doesn't bloody matter, they're all good. Good ol' AirAsia - 12UKP flights around Sabah and peninsular Malaysia, 20 UKP to Philippines.

I must be impressed at that as I've just spend 90 minutes pissing about on their website trying to book flights for folk. While I was typing this post I got an email in so I've now also booked a flight from KL to Kota Bahru.....but I've no idea how I'm getting to KL yet. Ahhh, the joys...

Some Pictures Uploaded!

Well I've finally uploaded some pictures for you to view at the Wandering Scotsman Gallery (I'll fix that URL name soonish!). All these pictures are ones of me, so a bit self indulgent, but it will give you a taster of what I've been up to, and what kind of environment I've been living in. Compared to all my photos, there's not many of me as a percentage, but that's the downside of being a photographer I guess. Every moment lost you're 'blamed' for but sometimes I just can't be bothered carrying the camera (and trust me, that's not often), and most pictures of me I had to ask for.

To the Raleigh staff and participants...for the above reasons I'll apologise if I've nicked your pictures for this site, let me know and I'll remove them - a bit hypocritical considering what I say when people say they want to upload a shitload of mine...but hey you've got to try and protect a growing 'portfolio' somehow!

Anyway, at the link above, you'll find pictures from staff training, my birthday paddy field planting, my nominated jungle valentine on the 14th, trekking, Mt Kinabalu, a couple of the Danum Valley camp, a few from the photoshoot for the Sabah Magazine, the staff group, me trying to dry off as we burned rubbish on an open fire, a bit of my 'trekker's beard', my various baths and showers and Kampong Linapasan, Imbak Canyon and Danum Valley and a few more. There's no description which is why I'm waffling.

Enjoy!

Nothing to see here, please move along...well actually..

Pretty uninteresting news today. I've been sifting thousands of photos of mine (and others) to select them for the 06E Expedition Magazine. Eventually they were ready and I popped into the city centre to pop it into the printers. It all went super smoothly, but I guess we'll find out on Thursday or Friday when we head back to see the proofs!

I hooked my laptop up to the net in the coffee bean, and it's been 71 days since the poor thing has had an internet connection! I did try and get some photos online, but gave up and got a taxi back home.

Last night several staff went to a slap up meal and night of celebration. We were in the Shangri-La's Cafe TATU for a slap up buffet meal, and that's certainly a way to describe it. I've never seen such a great selection of food in buffet eat as much as you like stye before. From sushi to curry to pasta to seafood, it was all there, including a counter where you selected your food, and stir fry ingredients, and had it cooked in front of you. As we were there early and had the local connections for the compulsory discount, the meal only cost 8.50 UKP, and another 4 UKP for drinks. I even managed to have a lovely pudding of mixed ice cream, topped with chocolate sauce and 'hundreds and thousands', with jelly, sweeties, and a bit of pineapple to make me feel better. The drinks still flowed afterwards, despite a plate of seafood, followed by a plate of stir fry, and a curry before the dessert. Despite seeing the first cheese board since I arrived, I couldn't manage to force it down me, or the bread and butter pudding. The drinks afterwards cost more than the meal and drinks at Cafe TUTU!

With this, and eating a full buffet Sunday roast, I've been eating a bit too well since arriving back at field base...but it's not a normal week as there are a few celebrations going on.

I've also got my deep dive and navigation dive booked for Friday to complete my Advanced PADI in preparation for booking the Sipadan trip tomorrow. I'm spending way too much - get me back to the jungle!

The rest of the week will be more pictures, and more pictures, and I'll be starting to research my October travel plans - maybe consisting of Myanmar, Cambodia, and whatever else takes my fancy (or not). I'll be hooking up with my mate Tracy I met in Whistler many moons ago. At this rate, we've got so much in mind, but both so in a 'let's not plan too much' mode, it could be quite interesting.

Like a typical day on projects, I think I've got no news, but I guess I'm doing ok.....

Other Raleigh Expedition Pictures

I've not had much of a chance to put my own pictures online so here's other staff member's pictures. If you are back from expedition and reading this, please let me know your links and I'll add them to here for others to see.

http://www.james-sheader.fotopic.net
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nettledaws/?saved=1 (the first four pics at the moment are from Linapasan, the gravity water feed project I was at for 10 days)

Liquid Addictions

Well it's the first normal day in field base, and all the usual office traits are back... I've become addicted to Nescafe 3-in-1 after being introduced to the little sachets of coffee,'milk' and sugar since being in Linapasan (thanks Emma!) - far more convenient when living in the wilds, where you can't get milk anyway. I've also started to love all the 'fruit tree' branded cans of juice where you get lychee, mango or blackcurrant with aloe vera bits in the can. mmmmm

When at a barbeque in Inobong with the trekkers the other night we were blindfolded and had to try loads of food and a juice...it tasted quite nice, but I've yet to find Kick-a-poo Joy Juice freely available, and get addicted to buying Joy Juice...

Back to work - thousands of pics to browse through...

The Last Phase (and a dive trip to Sipadan) beckons :-)

Well the final changeover has happened - the next one will be the participant's party in three weeks time, then the cleanup, then a dive trip to Sipadan hopefully! This changeover went quite well though, and I received a nice gift from a participant - chopsticks carved by the rangers at Danum Valley. This was a special place - it was a bit like walking through a film set at times, and quite difficult to access as a tourist, unless you go via the tourist area at Borneo Rainforest Lodge - unfortunately I didn't have a chance to see there.

Everything here happens in 'Raleigh time' - you think time is flying by, but at the same time it's difficult to remember what you did a few days ago, as usually so much has happened in between. It makes keeping a travel journal up to date a bit of a nightmare.

I'm in fieldbase all of the last phase so not looking forward to being in a relatively 'normal' office environment...in saying that it's completely different to working 9-5 in a normal job as anything can happen here from people radioing with medical problems, to nice smoothies being delivered from the in-house cook, to uninterrupted laughter as some random comment is made (and trust me, there's plenty of them!).

My head has started turning towards the end of the expedition more and more though. It's not that I particularly want to leave here as there is so much that goes on, but it's good looking forward to having my own time....but maybe not so much having to plan and budget it myself! I need to find a method of earning some money, preferably by some online route, so my trip can last as long as I would like it to.

Several staff and a few participants are planning a dive trip to Sipadan Island for three days after the trip. It's expensive for my budget at just over 300 UKP for three days, but it does include flights, 9 dives, accommodation and soft drinks. For the destination, it's a bargain as we've got a special deal, but it's a treat. If anyone wants to treat me, feel free!! I hope to do my two Advanced PADI dives on Friday if I can arrange it so it opens up deeper dives during the Sipadan trip. I also discussed potentially doing a Rescue Diver and Divemaster with Borneo Divers after the trip, but just something to consider at the moment...but it's tempting if I can wangle a deal with them! Maybe next year....

I've been up since 5.30am today to wave the buses as they departed for their project sites, but managed to pop out for Sunday roast, and a swim (sleep!) at the country club this afternoon, but now completely knackered. This week is a mad one - a magazine, and two photo exhibitions to plan, along with possible postcards, a cover for the expedition CD, pictures to develop from disposable cameras we gave to a community site, and lots more! I've probably got a couple of thousand of my own shots, plus around 10 participant and staff pictures to look through. A long day beckons!

Sabah Road Trip Report

I'm now back at field base - only been back for a day but it feels like an age.

I am pleased to say I've had a whole host of experiences in the last few weeks though which I'll just skim over at the moment. I've been to several project sites throughout the state of Sabah, and seen a whole load of stuff that the average tourist wouldn't see. There are a few opportunities I've missed, but nothing I'm regretting too much in the time available.

Within the last few days I've tubed down the river at Danum Valley in the middle of the rainforest. I joined the Raleigh camp at their suspension bridge work site (the Rhino bridge if anyone makes it there) and looked down over the river every day which became my relaxation spot, bath and shower for the last 5 days. The river was really low while I was there which meant it was safe to swim across. The first day I explored an area next to the work site we named the Rhino pools and was treated to superb water pools bathed in shafts of sunlight creeping through the rainforest canopy. The following day I triple bagged my camera in drysacks and waded it across for some pictures. After returning to camp one day, I was sitting on the beach and watched long tailed Macaque monkeys jumping around the fruit trees. When everyone else left the riverside beach area, three of them became a bit more inquisitive and walked around the rocks on the other side of the river from me.

The following day, I walked down to the field centre when all of a sudden the tree in front of me sprung alive as I disturbed an orang-utan. Unfortunately I didn't see it full on, but saw it's orange fur jumping around until he was a few trees away from me. There were a few pygmy squirrels kicking around the camp area, and we had a resident lizard living on the tree by the dry food slops area.

Unfortunately I headed away from the camp in a bit of a hurry the night before my departure to escort an ill participant to the comfort of the field centre. We had to move down just as darkness approached and were taken down by the rangers who camped close by us. The up side of this was we were taken by boat, in darkness, guided by the spotlight of the rangers. This was an amazing journey, and something you'd never get access to normally. All you could see was the rangers spotting the banks and the currents by spotlight, and headtorch when they cut the engine on the lower parts of the river. When you looked up, the only thing visible was the outline of the trees and the stars.

At the start of the trip the Permanent Secretary of Youth and Sport visited the project site at Danum, treated us to lunch and dinner, and planted a tree. At night we went to a talk from a Danum ranger then in true Asian style we sang karaoke with the Ministry staff until late o'clock...but remember 11pm is late o'clock in Raleigh time, never mind when we were rising at 4am... The Ministry's hospitality was immense and the whole team were taken to a viewing platform for the sunrise over the surreal misty Danum Valley, then treated to a slap up breakfast on the platform

Today I was looking through the photos from the last few weeks, but was subjected to the artificial stresses created at field base....although I'm loving the stuff I have to do over the next few weeks the simple life of a project site becomes all the more appealing.

I'll write more and put some pictures up soon, but it's likely to be later on next week as the madness of changeover has came round again, so tomorrow it's back to Borneo Paradise for a mad few days with some new participants, and many more knackered ones finding out which project sites they are heading to for their final few weeks....

Bump 'n' Grind

I'm sitting in Lahad Datu on the east coast of Borneo. We've just driven along 250km of road lined with Oil Palm trees, and that's only a snapshot of the industry. When you get to any viewpoint, all you can see is oil palm plantations as far as the eye can see.
I've just spent a week at a tiny kampong with 15 small homes making a productive start to a gravity water feed system. I spent the first morning there, which was my birthday, planting rice in the paddy fields for 3 hours. The men walked ahead making holes in the ground, while the women (and me!) threw the seeds in after them. This was a fantastic experience as no-one around me spoke any English, and I spent 3 hours thinking of nothing else except whether I had put the correct number of seeds in the hole - not too much, not too little, and hoping that I won't screw up their harvest!! As an 'orang-putty' I was getting laughed at a bit as it was probably the first time some of them had had such close contact with a white man, or possible even seen on, but I just laughed along.
It was a superb setting with a very small community, and some fantastic kids. We layed around 3km of plastic piping along some treacherous jungle like terrain, across massive fallen logs, and felled large clearings with the locals and their parangs. The JKK (head of the kampong) made us feel very welcome there. I must confess I pretty much had tears in my eyes leaving the project. I'll really miss completing the project, and getting more involved in the community as I think that was just about to turn the corner. I had tried getting invited to some local sing songs as there were always noisy houses every night. A few nights ago, we were lighting an open fire, and a couple of locals emerged from the darkness and helped us along. Through one of the host country participants, we had a conversation with them which was an experience. A couple of us tried their 'jungle baccy' (no, it's legitimate, not dodgy!), while I tried to get an invite to a house...unfortunately my time on the project was running out. Maybe it's because I got the high score on his mobile phone's driving game....

From there I was picked up by the loop land rover that resupplies the teams mid phase, drops of mail, and basically checks all is well. We headed to Imbak Canyon which involved 2 hours of driving off the main road, along logging tracks, once again surrounded by oil palm plantations. The journey was broken up now and again by massive logging trucks creating dust sprays over the trees, and us. There's only been about 300 people entered Imbak. We stayed at a camp used by the BBC when filming a forthcoming documentary. Just under the camp is an amazing waterfall which is used for washing, so we had a quick dip in there, and swam behind the fall.
At night I went out in a small group with two rangers on a night jungle trek. Despite not seeing much (only Mouse Deer) the sounds were amazing, and it was a tad bizarre when we switched off torches and stood in the silence, in the dark, for 5 minutes. I think under 150 people have been into this area so it's quite a priviledge.
From here we left and drove to Mangkuwagu, which is a larger kampong than Linapasan. To access here there is a 2.5-3hr journey along a road that many people would pay hundreds of pounds to off road on. To say it was bumpy would be an understatement - I was all over the place in the Land Rover. Unbelievably, 2hrs into it we stumbled across an oil tanker that was stranded in the mud. I couldn't believe he tried to get that far! The road was really enjoyable though. Everyone we passed either greeted us with a wave or waved back at us. If I was driving and we didn't have the time pressures I would have been stopping every 15 minutes for pictures of the locals.

When we rolled into the house where the project team are staying we had a welcoming committee of around 20 kids running towards us singing with the team - you can't get much better than that.
This morning we went to the school for 40 mins taking pictures, and getting sung to. They were so friendly and welcoming, and they must be the most happy children I've ever met by the looks of it. I was really reluctant to leave here and wanted to stay the rest of the phase.

After this we visited the work site of the new kindergarten briefly then left to head to Lahad Datu. Back along the 3hr off road.... then a 3hr trip on the main road.
Tomorrow we meet some officials from the Ministry of Sport and Finance and head to Danum Valley for a day of show and tell, and some official ceremonies. On Saturday morning I'll wave goodbye to the loop vehicle and stay in Danum until Wednesday before flying back to KK just before the next changeover.

Already it feels like the end of the programme is looming - unbelievable! In a way I look forward to having days to do what I want to but I'm loving it at the moment. I wish I had more community work, but it's great heading around Sabah and seeing the projects. Despite heading back to the field base office in under a week, a real office seems a million miles away, and not something I wish to return to if I can help it (although I'm happy to accept that may change with time!). Unfortunately I remember I'm not getting paid any more, but then a fried rice does only cost 80p if you eat at the right places..! Tonight's meal for 3 was 30RM - less than five pounds for 3 dishes, 2 coffees, 3 smoothies, and a coke!

Off back to our hotel (yes, amazing) as it's a big day tomorrow. I had my first shower for a week and a half this evening. It's only when you hit everyday things like this I realise I've been bathing and chilling in rivers once or twice a day, looking across from the community hall towards the paddy fields, and jungle, and bouncing around Sabah in a 4x4.

Phase 1 Changeover

Well I survived a trek over the Crocker Range National Park, and a trop up Mount Kinabalu. Both were superb. We had more time free on the trek than I thought - we were finished by lunchtime or early afternoon which was great. We managed to go swimming in rivers, wash there, try to buy pigs from the community (we ended up with fish), cooked tapioka inside bamboo on an open fire, a couple of folk burst the water pipe supplying a community which we managed to arrange to fix, we burned loads of rubbish left by other visitors, we stayed in the jungle and community halls, there were loads of leeches, and a whole lot more!
On Mt Kinabalu we stayed at 11000 feet overnight, then left for the summit at 0245. We got up Mt Kinabalu in just enough time to see the sunrise, and managed to stay up there for an hour or so which was superb. On the way up I coaxed up one of the host country participants which was superb as he thanked me a lot for getting him up there. There were several folk that hadn't been on anything like that before, or seen the views which was really rewarding. When I saw one of the other partcipants summit and come down again I was almost in tears as she found thre previous trek, and this, so difficult, but was so proud to have achieved it. For the first time I was really buzzing after we got to the overnight camp. I had my fleece on, I was on a real mountain, and I was going to start walking in the dark. It was an amazing feeling, and was quite obvious to the others I was loving it. Despite all this, the inital path on Mt K sucks - I hate paths like that. Full of people, rocky, and large steps. All worth it though. I decided to shave off my 'trekkers beard' today.

Just now, we have a 36 hour changeover period at the Borneo Paradise Resort which is a nice enough hotel, just out of town. All the groups get mixed up, and allocated to different projects. Just now is a tiny wee moment I have to myself.
Tomorrow (Sunday 30th) at 6am I roll away from the hotel and head to Linapasan in the Ranau region of Borneo to start working on a gravity water feed site for a community. This involves laying pipes to the kampong, and constructing a dam, and taking loads of photos of the work. In a week's time I'll get picked up by the resupply loop vehicle, and get dropped off in Danum Valley to help the team build a suspension bridge. Both projects are a lot of hard graft. In Danum I'll have to drop any worries about insects and animals as they've got everything from frogs to scorpions to snakes and wild board...and a whole lot more! And a whole lot more you wouldn't even recognise.
That's all until 16th August! Have fun!

Subscribe to A Wandering Scotsman

There's a wee box on the right hand side of this blog now so you can subscribe. Just enter your email address and away you go. I promise I won't share your email addresses with anyone, but the list is managed by bloglet.com, but they won't either. There are hardly going to be any updates for a few weeks now, so this will make sure you get an email when update it on my return around 16th August. I can however still get bl00dy letters delivered though ;->

The Salt Trails of the Crocker Range

Early tomorrow I'm boarding the Nui Luck Express (sounds scarily close to Nae Luck Express!) for two hours to Tambunan to meet the trekking group I was on Mamutik Island with. From there we move on to start a week long trek along the Salt Trail of the Crocker Range. (the link provides a couple of sample pictures).
This trail was used in the past to carry supplied from remote villages to Tambunan and between villages. In 7 days I'll be gearing up to head up Mount Kinabalu over a 2 day period, hopefully getting to the top to witness a beautiful sunrise...hopefully! From there it's back to changeover between phases, where the participants will be swapped around and some of the project managers will move projects, participants swap gossip, and enjoy the joys of a swimming pool and beach, and everyone has a bloody good shower.
After that I'll be heading to Linapasan to join a project starting a new gravity water feed system for a community. When the loop vehicle passes the project mid phase I'll join the Land Rover for some mad offroading between sites, and hopefully get to visit Imbak Canyon before I get dropped in Danum Valley. We may have some Ministers joining part of the loop as they should be visiting the project in Danum. After a few days I'll head back from Lahad Datu to Kota Kinabalu on the wonderfully cheap FlyAsianXpress, all for less than six pounds.
Once back from there it's going to be mad as it'll be the start of the last expedition phase with CDs, tshirts and exhibitions to organise.
I'm knackered just thinking about it. Catch you in a few weeks!

Living it up at field base, & where's my post!

Yes it's not quite the hardship posting I expected while I'm at field base. Malaysia is definitely the most luxurious Raleigh destination...surely! The couple of pics uploaded today are from my few hours out at Sutera Marine and Country Club as mentioned in a previous post. This is the view to the islands of Mamutik, Gaya and Sapi (I think) from the poolside, and the reception area. The other pics are of the tough eating regime we have to go through - fresh grouper fish with rice and chicken wings. Bummer.
Last night we did our first 'Radio Raleigh' broadcast to all the project groups over the HF radio. Most groups tuned in to updates on news, sport, entertainment and a fictional story, with the odd musical interlude of classics such as 'Macho Men' decicated to the trekkers.
It was a relatively easy day today writing the next issue of the 'Sabah Sun', our internal newsletter for participants which is distributed at handover, and radio duty. The radio was busy today as we have some small storms are coming over project sites, so plans for the resupply vehicle were being watched as the radio, telephone and satellite phone reports were coming in thick and fast. Absolutely run of the mill stuff there though so no great shakes to be made.

Only a couple of days left then I'm out of field base until around 14th or 16th of August. Luckily the budget airlines such as Fly Asian Express are here as well so I can get a flight back early from close to a project site for 35 Ringgits (around 6 pounds including tax for a 55 minute flight. I hope to make it to Imbak Canyon in a few weeks which will be great. The BBC just finished a documentary here, and hardly anyone gets into the area at the moment (only around 200 so far) - apparently there is a huge waiting list and can cost up to 1000 Ringgits to get in. We have some Ministers going to visit the site next week but I'll be trekking then. High rivers can prevent access like it probably will tomorrow, so fingers crossed for the next few weeks.

Also, where's my post! I've only got 1 letter, 2 cards, and 2 small parcels which were great to get. I often see the mail coming through for everyone else, so come on, retrieve that old email from me, and send me some post. If I'm out and about I should get it delivered on the loop vehicle. If you don't send it within the next few weeks I won't be here anymore (how time flies!).

Panaitan Community Sing-a-long

Yesterday I went out on the initial visit of the loop (resupply) vehicle to a community project in Kampong Panaitan near Kota Marudu in northern Borneo, just over 2 hours north of Kota Kinabalu. The project site is right next to the local school, and the team lives on the school grounds. Within minutes of sitting down and supping a cup of tea, a few of the local community came over and asked if they could sit with us. A couple of minutes later, a few more girls, armed with a guitar joined us and an impromptu music session ocurred, including the guitar being played by one of the project team. Fifteen minutes later, there were around thirty kids, and a couple of their parents, sitting around a circle outside the school singing their hearts out, while the guys mainly played volleyball with some Raleigh staff and participants.
It was fantastic, and exactly what I wanted from a community site visit. We were really lucky to get this reception as there is normal no-one around the school on a Saturday. I think the reception we got was partially due to most of the team going to the church ceremony in the morning, where some of the kids had been singing. After about two hours, the team decided they had done their bit and departed to do other tasks...
As usual, the kids were super camera friendly, and they all had big smiles on, escpecially the young girls. This lasted for around 90 minutes, and for all that time I had my MP3 player sneakily recording the musical madness in the middle of the group while I became very snap happy. Back to field base now though for a few days in the office unfortunately. The pictures uploaded are from today - in order : The Raleigh Land Rover stopping for lunch at a stall, participant Lisa with a local, a few of the locals singing, a few of me, and the evening entertainment, just before a game of The Weakest Link.

Raleigh Malaysia Update

Here's a link to the first update for the current 06E Raleigh International Malaysia expedition I'm on at the moment, with details of the project and field base teams.

A diving shot, and my new house

Here's a wee picture of me from my dive yesterday, and my home from home, Raleigh field base in Kota Kinabalu.

Some time off!

I had a hard day today...well not exactly. I took advantage of a rare few hours off, and went down to the Sutera Harbour Marina Golf & Country Club where we've blagged a bit of a deal for day's off. I spent a good few hours just chilling out with my book, my (so far empty) travel journal, and my iaudio listening to some tunes. I managed to cram around 3 weeks into 5 pages in my journal, but apart from the odd swim, not much to report...except I felt I had been ripped off - my coke cost almost 1.50 UKP, and my drink and a burger lunch, the best part of a tenner! Yes, I felt ripped off at that. In a way that's a good feeling...most things are so cheap over here compared to back home, although, we'd also be considered minted if we worked here on UK salaries, so not really a fair comparison.

Most folk popped out to the cinema tonight and I stayed in to watch my first full DVD which is amazing as there's one on most nights. Unfortunately, this wasn't one of the best quality ahem legitimate DVDs I've ever watched and it crashed half way through. Ahhh, dontcha just love Asia.

Anyway, I guess I could actually tell you a bit about where I am just now. Getting a cab back from the resort to field base (paying the country club rates of course...5 Ringgits more than usual!) I was disappointed to notice what stood behind one of the huge billboards for a new shopping complex. There's around 8 shopping complexes being built in KK at the moment - apparently bandwagons are quite commonplace here - someone builds something, so many more people decide it must be a good idea. How they can all make money, god only knows. Anyway, I've been driven past this site several times, but usually with a group in a Land Rover, stashed full of kit. Today I noticed what lay behind the metal corrugated iron around the site - the stilt houses of some of the locals. Looks like they're about to get knocked down and filled over which is a shame. No doubt the locals will class them as stupid immigrants or something, but always a shame to see.

Another bizarre thing is a fun run that is happening this weekend. It starts at 5.17pm. Yes, 5.17pm, which is bloody hilarious when you consider around here, everything runs by 'Sabah Time'...which means, no hurry. I'm sure there's a reason for the timing but I'd like it explained. I also went to a hardware store on the way to the island the other day...had all sorts of DIY stuff hanging off the shelves...but no bloody batteries! Well, they did, but only one type, and the type you can hardly use in anything.

I'll write more about Sabah later. Tomorrow I'm off for an overnight visit to a community project site in a Kampong called Panaitan near Kota Marudu in northern Borneo. I'm really looking forward to this as they are building a kindergarten and there should be loads of local kids kicking around the place. I'm sure there will be a few pics up next week.

Mamutik Island, and first publication!

I had my first picture published in a newspaper on Wednesday! After the press attending the opening ceremony for the 06E Malaysia, there were a couple of articles in the press about Raleigh's work. My picture of a local staff member was published in the and my picture of one of the local staff was published in the New Sabah Times, a local newspaper for the district. Hey, it's a start!
I've spent the last couple of days on Mamutik Island off the coast of Kota Kinabalu with one of the groups. I was trying to take pictures for a local tourism magazine, but came back a bit disappointed after the first time out with my underwater kit. Still, I got five dives in two days, only one of which was a boat dive. Most of them were quite uneventful watching others doing their PADI Open Water skills, but still great to get underwater. The guys at Borneo Divers were very helpful as Raleigh do all their diving through them. I had a sneaky chat about potentially doing the Divemaster qualification after the expedition, but that's a thought for the moment.

The island was very relaxing despite being busy. I set up a hammock away from the group tarp, so I was inches from the sand, and looked out over the sea towards the lights of KK, with Mount Kinabalu in the background. When sitting on the beach at night there were loads of tiny crabs went scooting all over the place until you moved to scare them away. I wasn't lucky enough to see a monitor lizard or anything though. At high tide the water was only a few feet from my hammock. I left the group this afternoon, but will rejoin them to trek the Crocker Range and Mount Kinabalu next week.

he images in this post are the beach that was my front garden as I stepped out my hammock..which was nice. The second one is the view across the 20 minute boat trip to Kota Kinabalu, with Mt Kinabalu in the background...again the view from my hammock, with the sundown view next. My hammock is then pictured. This will be my bed for 7 days when I head out trekking, moving it each night, and in most of the other sites I head to. There's a few scuba pictures, and to finish it off, the local kid who lives on Mamutik who has a habit of trying to whip you with leaves like you were getting the belt in school.

A Day In The Office

Just a quick post tonight as its been a day in the office sorting out some images. I have scuba gear confirmed for tomorrow so it's off to take some underwater pictures of one of the teams doing their PADI on Mamutik Island. I'm going to spend the night there on a hammock which will be brilliant (if I can avoid the mossies!)...apparently you can hear things crawling from the sea on to the shore during the night. I'm just hoping the weather holds out. After than I'm up to spend a day and night at a community site where they are building a kindergarten which should be superb. After a couple of days back at field base I'm off to trek across the Crocker Range for several days, then a trek up Mount Kinabalu.
I've uploaded some pictures from jungle training - one participant who as appropriately asking for help cooker her Quaker Oats (a quick thanks to one of ourt sponsors!), my office (note the Land Rovers in the back!), the schedule at training camp, a host country participant enjoying her guitar, me walking out the jungle at 6am so I can rush back to field base, and me in the jungle the day before. I won't apologise for the formatting as I'm doing it in a rush (as usual!).

Zzzzzzz

I'm completely knackered after having way too many 15-19 hour + days. But still, it beats 'real' work. The blog updates haven't been happening recently as all the participants arrive from last Monday. I accompanied the host country participants on the bus to the jungle training camp, then came back to the airport to meet the mainly UK participants arriving. It's been a manic (but magic) several days at training camp, with us doing the training of setting up hammocks and tarps, etc. I was mainly rushing around taking pictures of everyone in different circumstances, and my biggest picture to date of around 120 participants and staff in scorching heat....

After that I walked out the jungle at 6am to rush back to Kota Kinabalu to help the logistics guys. In a mad weekend we got equipment ready for 7 groups with 10-15 folk each, for three weeks. My tasks ranged from chatting to participants, handing out the expedition tshirts, taking pics, attending the opening ceremony with a minister and all the other volunteers, selling stuff at the temporary shop, drinking about 20 cans of 100Plus, and probably loosing around 70 litres in sweat lugging stuff around....
It was a bit bizarre getting up at 5am this morning and watching all my new mates depart on buses full of participants, food, and equipment ranging from circular saws to wheelbarrows, taking them around Sabah to their project sites.

I had a few achievements this week though....
I spoke on a microphone on a bus while driving from the airport :-)
I had my newsletter distributed to the 80+ perticipants.
I took a shedload of pictures.
I had my first real venture into youth development, and had a very strenuous day in jungle camp...but this isn't the place to discuss that!!
Some of my pictures were sent to local press today, but not sure if they'll be used.

More soon...

Day 'off'

We pretty much have a day off tomorrow, but in reality, there's never a day off here. We're all off for some team building on Mamutik Island in the morning, and I can't wait. It's a beautiful small island with a stunning beach with pretty dense jungle, and where the team stay on their own (except 4 residents) during the diving part of the adventure phase. Apparently you hear the crabs, lizards etc when you crash out in your hammock. I'll then pop into KK to buy some tobacco.... no mum, it's for my boots. Apparently it's good in your boots to keep the leeches away, but when the guys returned from Imbak and Danum they reckoned it was a load of bollocks.
There's a bit more anticipation as the participants arrive the day after then all hell will break loose with 90+ young folk fresh off a plan and taken straight to jungle camp. With a bit of jet lag it'll probably be carnage as they get taken through a lot by us, most of which will be a new experience for them - e.g. staying in the jungle, cooking outdoors, rigid hygiene methods that must be applied, and lots more.
I went out for the Sabah Tourism photo shoot last night which was really good fun. I couldn't complain as I was being asked to top up my free glass of beer so it looked good in the photo. There were loads of laughs and smiles as it was all a bit surreal for us so there should be some cracking shots for them I hope.
Anyway, it's late. I hope you like the pics I've just uploaded for previous posts.

Run up to the projects...

Well everyone is back from their project recces and it's great to see them all excited about their destinations for the next 10 weeks or so. Many have came back leeched, especially the boys from Danum Valley which is where I'm based for 5 days in around 6 weeks time. On the flip side they saw loads of wildlife from wild boars to bearded pigs, elephants and snakes. Imbak Canyon was some monkeys flying around the trees. Their campsite sounds fantastic as it's close to a waterfall that's "Straight out the Timotei advert...in fact it's miles better than that".
Off for a sneaky beer, so more soon.
PS : Where are my letters and emails folks!! Only had one letter so far!
PPS : I've got a new career...I'm off modelling on Saturday night! Not kidding, Sabah Tourism has requested a few of us to go to a pub and club (and they've given us a very strict dress code) for a tourism photo shoot, and we're getting paid for it! (well the money will obviously go straight to Raleigh International).

Life Through A Lens

Well the tables may be turned on me soon...a few of us have been invited to attend a Sabah Tourism photo shoot to potentially be models for posters to be distributed in tourism brochures around Asia!! Better put on my best clothes.... bit of a long blog entry tonight...
Anyway, it's all turned very busy in the run up to the participants coming out next week. My diary is absolutely jam packed, but then so is all the other staff members!
Blog updates will definitely be few and far between from the middle of next week as we are all off to jungle camp with the participants, taking pics, training them up and doing all the briefings we have covered.
I've also started the internal newsletter to be handed out next week.
The following week I'm split between field base and the diving part of the adventure phase to get some pics of staff and participants on Mamutik island (can't find a decent site, but check the Mamutik pictures here) doing their PADI qualification. I'll leave them early so I can go for an overnight trip to a Kampong (village) close to Kota Mirudu to view a community project building a gravtiy water feed system. Then I'm back to field base doing some catch up while the team are trail building on the Crocker Range, then joining them for the trek along the Crocker Range. To end phase 1, I'll spend a couple of days doing Mount Kinabalu which stops rising at 4095 metres. I'm really looking forward to this as you start off during the night and then get up to the summit for sunrise...I just hope it's bloody good weather. Pictures of the mountain remind me of Skye back home in Scotland, but instead of walking through four different seasons in a day, you walk through four different ecosystems through jungles and rainforests, but still end up on the top bloody freezing.
After that I'm back to play catch up for a couple of days during changeover, then I'm deploying with another team to another community project which I think is building a kindergarten. After a few days I'll be picked up by the loop vehicle, and go through some horrendous off-road journey hopefully to Imbak Canyon (where's there's only been a couple of hundred folk in), but that will depend on the height of the river, then over to Danum Valley Conservation area for five days. I may get the bus back to a town and fly back from here to get back to field base early.
Between myself and Kate, the PR Officer, we should get pretty good coverage of the projects, but it will mean a horrendous amount of work to get ready for a slideshow and photo comp, and souvenir CD and postcards!!

A couple of us managed to get out for some shopping in KK tonight...it was the usual Asian mall where you walk into some sh!thole looking building that looks like it's a carpark full of cr@p shops...then all of a sudden the place opens up into some mega shopping mall (but still full of really cheap, but cr@p thirts!). Apparently there are 8 of these being built at the moment in the area.

Anyway, radio duty tomorrow.....bed beckons me! No time to proof read this!

It's all gone quiet...except the radio

My flat is rented!!!!!!!! Yaaaaaah. Yup, no more flat renting worries from today as a deposit is down, and I don't have to keep comparing my mortgage payments to the number of 'weeks in Asia' it costs me!
After a hectic time post jungle camp, all project managers are now out on project recce's double checking the site, the community, transport and medical facilities available. There was a real buzz about field base as everyone was sussing out kit orders, accommodation (even if it may be a hammock!), and transport.
My first proper photography part was played taking staff photos while helping out with other stuff. A few of us still managed to pop out for a bit later on, after having a meditation session with one of the staff members. There's even morning yoga some days.
It's all far quieter around field base tonight as everyone has shifted around Sabah....except the radio!! Now that everyone's out and about, the speakers are on in field base, and listened to 24x7...unfortunately that also means getting piped into the office during the day....but it' a lifeline if it hits the fan.

Another excitement today was I had my first photo shoot to do!! Not quite a professional one....and to be honest I never knew what I was taking them for.... it turned out it was the Sabah Ports revamp of Kota Kinabalu ferry terminal!! I didn't really enjoy it a I was trying to do it in a hurry, didn't really know what kind of shots were required, and couldn't get decent shots of the islands due to the haze....but hey, I did get driven around by a beautiful young Malay (who trashed me at pool while the footy was on in the pub lat night) and got treated to lunch, so can't complain!! A few lessons learned for the next time though...like don't go out with scabby mossie bites and a trashed old tshirt when trying to look like a pro!...or was that meant to be remember how important the weather was?! To be fair I was expecting a phone call before I went out, but didn't get any notice. I'd love to head out again when I have more time to see if I could improve them and be a bit more imaginative as to be honest, I was really hacked off how cr@p my shots were! Unfortunately the shots of the more photogenic Filipino glue sniffers and their mates who run the older boats aren't required.....
Anyway, it's 10pm and I'm still sitting in the field base office...desipte this real work seems a gazillion miles away!! I haven't much joy trying to connect my laptop to the network here but will try again tomorrow to get some pics uploaded (everyone expects me to know everything about PC's here!..luckily the 'virus' this morning was just a disabled network card.....).

Ray Mears, eat your heart out. Jungle Camp

Maybe I'm saying too much about the Raleigh International programme on this blog, but I hope it may be of help to some people considering attending, or volunteering for a staff role.
The blog's been a bit quiet as we have been away at an adventure centre on the Kiulu River having some jungle training. We had a great couple of days there and luckily managed to avoid any rainstorms as it was already slippy enough. We spent out first day getting medical briefs, and being shown how to erect 'bashers' (think tarps and hammocks in trye Ray Mears style!) using bamboo, parangs (large machete type knifes) and mosquito nets. We had a bit of luxury the first night by cooking under shelter, and staying in the equivalent of Ikea bashers - they were erected already, all we had to do was put up the mossie nets.
The next day we loaded all our kit and radios per team and trekked into the jungle. I think my pack must have been about 20 kilos with the camera stuff in there as well as the radio. We set up the radios half way in then moved into camp by the river. It was quite a surreal site watching everyone set up the bashers in the jungle environment, even more surreal watching everyone once it got dark, cursing and swearing at collapsed hammocks or mossie nets under torchlight.
Just after setting up we managed to steal a few minutes to have a dip in the river before cooking up dinner on the trangia stoves, and playing some example icebreaker games. To be honest I had a far better sleep than I thought I would have, but I reckon the ear plugs helped a great deal. I could still hear the most amazing noises through them, so much so I had to check it wasn't chucking it down with rain a few times. Once we were wrapped up under shelter I'm sure there were several folk wishing it had actually had a full on rainstorm for 30 mins to see if our shelters held up!! I did hold off having a number 2 in the long drop (toilet, a.k.a. dug out hole) though...after all I knew we'd be back at field base soon!
After a mock medical situation and radio call in on the way back we had some time for R&R where I managed to walk into Lintas, the part of Kota Kinabalu we are based in.
To get an alternative take on Malay culture we headed for a night of Karaoke....apparently government ministers even sing this to chill out a bit after meetings!

Today the projects were allocated which was exciting to watch as people found out their destiny for the next three months. Although field base is in a city, there are amazing projects to take part in. Projects such as Imbak Canyon are only about 1.5hrs helicopter flying time away from KK, but its a 15 hours road journey to get there, and river crossing are regularly too high for days on end. It sounds amazing in there with untouched rainforest and amazing wildlife. The community and adventure projects are superb for this programme as well ranging from building kindergartens to trekking up Mt Kinabalu to building a water storage facility.
Time to disappear for the night. Over.

Welcome to the jungle...

"Welcome to the jungle
It gets worse here everyday
Ya learn ta live like an animal
In the jungle where we play
If you got a hunger for what you see
You'll take it eventually
You can have anything you want
But you better not take it from me"

At least that's how Guns 'n' Roses described it. After a day of some analysing of what everyone wants or expects out of the programme, some HF radio training, and cultural awareness, we went off to a cultural evening of food and traditional tribal dances.
It's our first really early morning tomorrow as the whole group of staff are off to the jungle for training - setting up camp, sleeping in hammocks and under tarps, etc. We'll be back on Saturday!!
I think we have the biggest cockroach in the world in our bathroom tonight as well. I think it's going to eat the wee lizard.

More soon......

Who said this would be a jolly?

Well I arrived at Raleigh field base today, and to some more great people. The guys here have put in a sterling effort to get the place ready, in what has been described several times as one of Raleigh's most palatial field bases! Despite this, it's going to be a hot kip with a few of us in each room, and the mossy nets are up already! We are in the Lintas (I think) area of Kota Kinabalu in a massive house, and have the luxury of a lovely local woman to cook some food. After getting some briefings about my role as a photographer I (admittedly very late) joined in scrubbing some pots and pans from the last programme to get them ready for this trip.

My role is looking like it's going to be very hard work, but really rewarding, and hopefully exactly what I hoped for. As well as photo briefs from Head Office, I have to produce photo CD's for venturers, postcards and maybe other stationary to purchase, help sort out a t-shirt design comp, arrange a slide show and photo exhibition, and cover as many of the projects as possible, including some underwater shots during at least one of the dive phases. This programme looks like it's going to have more than the usual share of visits to projects sites from local government ministers to large name corporate sponsors (think some of the very very well known company names in the world), all of which must be covered if possible.
The usual newsletters and press releases have to be performed as well which are sent to local press and sponsors. My driving force for in this is the on site Raleigh PR Officer, a journalist from one of the big worldwide news channels, who I hope to glean a lot of info from!

Tomorrow is straight into it with the start of staff training, then Thursday until Saturday will be spent in the jungle getting trained from locals how to construct camp areas and survive in that environment.
There are some stunning projects this year in places like Danum Valley conservation area and Imbak Canyon. This article, and this article give more news on previous Raleigh trips to Imbak Canyon. These are renowned areas for conservation around the world, some parts of which are very remote and have seen no more than 200 visitors. One previous group had to camp for four days until the river went down so they could drive across it.

Anyway, I've waffled enough but wanted to say what I was up to. Time for kip!

End of the 'holiday'

Just a quick last post before I get picked up from Raleigh for the start of the 3 months. Great crowd I've met so far. Unfortunately I was too late to get to one of the small islands offshore like Mamutik yesterday. Only 17 Ringgits to get there and back and it was a picture of paradise.

We ate at the Filipino market in KK yesterday. Amazing freshly bbq'd fish and rice, eating with your hands. The tuna was amazing and with a drink it was only 10 Ringgits (around 1.40UKP). During the day the market was mostly fruit and veg with the most amazing array of stuff there. A great place for photos, unfortunately I left my camera at home last night.

Looks like my net access will become more limited so the updates and pics will die down. Have some good ones from the market yesterday. Got my Malaysia SIM card so I have some touch with the 'outside' world.

More soon, just dunno when.....
PS : There's quite a few rats kicking around here....

I'm in friggin' Borneo

How the bloody hell did I end up here? Only a few years ago I thought Borneo was the arse end of nowhere. Now I realise it's huge. 5th (or is it 2nd?) biggest island in the world, and Kota Kinabalu is a similar size to friggin' Edinburgh - 250,000 live here! Yes, sorry folks, the reality is true. Under my hostel, Trekker's Lodge is....a bloody 7-11. It's very built up as well, with 8 large shopping malls going up in the next year or so.
This hostel isn't nearly as neat as the one in Singapore. Pretty basic, and no endless realms of travel books, dive magazines, and local guidebooks like before...although the owners are very friendly. "Lonely Planet-ness" came to light at the airport as I was chatting to another lodge owner who was toiling as he hadn't hit Lonely Planet yet, and had to wait three years to hit the next one, if at all. Jeez folks, it's the day of the internet...look up your own accommodation! (although it may well end up being the same place).
Anyway, hope to hit Mamutik Island tomorrow afternoon for some snorkelling as I met a couple of Raleigh folk in the hostel tonight. Seem a great bunch, so should be a laugh...but hard work. No free net access here, so I think this may be the start of the demise of my blog for a while.
Borneo beckons....for 3 months+! Quite sad reading the guidebook - so much to do here, but we'll be snowed under doing the stuff for Raleigh International.

Still....I could be at work.

PS: Turns out Malaysia really is truly Asia - even says it on the ad's here!

Malaysia. Is it truly Asia like the adverts say?

Well my 2nd day in Singapore didn't amount to much as expected. By the time I had woken up for 2 hours again in the middle of the night, and counted 587 sheep before falling asleep again (just prior to ripping the throats of the girls talking on the stairs), I didn't get up til 1030. By the time I chucked out some magazines and paper (only after ripping out some excellent guides to SE Asia and Japan in June's Wanderlust and Travel mags) it was time for a quick snack then the bus across the causeway to Johor Bahru in Malaysia for my flight to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo.
As those of you who know me, you can imagine the sight of me. I 'cheated' at both ends by getting a taxi instead of a bus, but I had to lug my rucksack (held in a thin holdall), my daypack full of 'toys', the laptop, and some other bag that I still didn't manage to ditch yet (well I did get a couple of heavy books given to me before I left!). These all had to be transported from taxi to bus at Singapore's Queen Street bus station, off the bus to Singapore immigration, back onto the next bus for 5 mins to reach Malaysian immigration, then I was meant to get back on to the bus into town.
I decided the local geezer who offered me a lift direct to the airport for 40 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit..which is under £6 for a 30 min cab ride) gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. It saved me lugging the bags again. All that for less than a tenner. I took 2hrs, but I reckon thats about the quickest you could do it, and it could take twice as long if you get buses all the way, and its a busy time at immigration. Oh, and for those who want to know, Johor Bahru has free wifi in the classy "Deli 'n' Meals" cafe.
If I had followed people's advice and took less luggage it would have all been hassle free, but to be honest, there wasn't much I could ditch. I could have ditched the laptop, and all my camera gear, but I don't think it would look very promising if I turned up to be a photographer for three months with 30 locally purchased disposable cameras.....In saying that I'm already looking forward to three months time when I can ditch things like mess tins etc.


Thought for the day... why don't Asian cities just have one bus station so you don't find out which one to get to, depending on where you are going?

Singapore tip of the day : Yaaaah, I made it through Singapore without going to Raffles and buying a Singapore Sling. And to be honest, the thought didn't cross my mind. If I haven't said it before, save yourself $23 (remember these are Singapore dollars readers, not US!) and being hovelled in the 3rd floor or whatever, and go to the New Asian Bar across the road - same owners, but something like the 56th floor (ok, maybe the 30th ish but I dunno), and in you'd get a cracking view of the city. Only thing is blokes need to wear long trousers, long sleeves and no sandals, and I'm on holiday.

Guess I better go and check in. I've also a 122 page document about group health and safety, river crossing, dangerous animals, how to dig a decent pit to sh!t in, and other marvels to read in the next day or so. (Note for Ken if you read this - I took this as a Word document so that's a few hundred grams "shaved" ;-)